10 Largest US Cities by Decade

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1940
  1. New York (NY) – population: 7,457,995
  2. Chicago (IL) – population: 3,396,808
  3. Philadelphia (PA) – population: 1,931,334
  4. Detroit (MI) – population: 1,623,452
  5. Los Angeles (CA) – population: 1,504,277
  6. Cleveland (OH) – population: 878,336
  7. Baltimore (MD) – population: 859,100
  8. St. Louis (MO) – population: 816,048
  9. Boston (MA) – population: 770,816
  10. Pittsburgh (PA) – population: 671,659

Things have remained more or less the same after the 1940 census with neither of the cities exhibiting exponential levels of growth like Detroit or Los Angeles used to 10 and 20 years ago respectively. However, few cities have seen their first ever drops in population which will only intensify after the next censuses – courtesy of World War II.

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